The south pole is at the center of
the image, and the continent of Antarctica is surrounded by sea ice and storm fronts. The smallest
feature visible is approximately 12 miles (20 kilometers) in size.
The image is in false color, constructed from blue, green, and infrared filters. These colors highlight differences between rock types, water, and vegetation. The red area on the right side of the image is vegetation in southern South America, and the adjacent brown area is desert. Snow, ice, and clouds appear as subtly different shades of white and light blue depending on the size of the grains of snow and ice and the types of clouds. This view is part of a movie of Earth's rotation, acquired over 36 hours as the spacecraft receded from the Earth. The movie will be available in early February.
Same image in TIFF, (Tag Image File Format) 500K